Toronto, Oct. 21 (BNA) Nick Robertson scored his second goal last night in his first appearance of the season at 3:46 of overtime to give the Toronto Maple Leafs a 3-2 victory over the Dallas Stars on Thursday night.
After breaking a play at the other end of the rink, the 21-year-old Robertson took a pass from Auston Matthews in a 3-in-1 dash and shot past Scott Wedgwood to make the winger’s best performance as a professional.
The 53rd pick in the 2019 draft was a fit for the first time this season after being sent to the minors despite having a solid training camp due to salary cap concerns.
But after putting guard Matt Murray in the injured reserve position for a long time, he opened the door for the Leafs to call up Robertson, according to the Associated Press.
Robertson faced 23-year-old brother Jason for the second time in his career. The Robertson brothers also shared the same ice in the National Hockey League last March when Toronto beat Dallas 4-0 at Scotiabank Arena. Jason Robertson signed a four-year, $31 million contract with the stars this month.
Alexander Kervot also scored for Toronto (3-2-0). Ilya Samsonov stopped 26 shots, and Michael Banting added assists.
Tyler Seguin and Luke Glending scored two goals for Dallas (3-0-1), as they made 40 saves from Wedgwood in his first act of the season.
“They have some skill,” Stars coach Peter Debor said. “When they have the disc, it is difficult to defend them. A good waypoint.”
The Leafs were coming off an unfortunate 4-2 defeat to Arizona — the 31st-ranked NHL team last season — on Tuesday night that saw coach Sheldon Keefe send a powerful public message for the second time in four games to start the schedule. After also bombing Toronto in the wake of the 4-3 loss to Montreal on opening night.
Drawn 1-1 through two periods, Toronto took a 1:59 lead in the third period when Robertson made a nice play to rock Dallas captain Jimmy Bean along the boards before finally taking a feed from Bunting and hitting Wedge Robertson nearly making it 3. 1 after a few minutes, but he shot wide on 2-on-1 low with Wedgewood at his mercy.
Dallas came back until 7:21 in a strong game when Seguin fired from close range to net his second well-fed goal from former Levs winger Mason Marchment after Kerfoot went into the penalty area to delay the game.
The play was initially called off due to goalkeeper interference, but Stars coach Pete Dibor defied the call. The sequence was eventually canceled after the NHL Cases Chamber determined that Mitch Marner was responsible for calling on Samsonoff.
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